David Avery “Abstracting The Quintessence”

David Avery “Dreams Money Can’t Buy”

David Avery “The Long Road to War”

David Avery “Tempestuous Muse”

2010 Etching 7″x7″ framed 17″x16″

David Avery “Runner Mom, Death and Devil)”

2015 Etching 6″x12″ framed 15″x21″

David Avery “Running on Empty”

2016 Etching 6″x6″ #10 of 30 framed 16″x15″

BIO

David Avery continues to exploit the constraints inherent in traditional black and white line etching in his studio in San Francisco for his own suspect purposes. His work is included in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, the New York Public Library, the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, the Stanford University Library among others, and has been noted in the Washington Post and the New York Times. Originally trained as a classical musician, he discovered etching almost by accident in a class at the local community college. After learning the basic techniques, he intently pursued his own course of discovery, developing an exceptional technique and creating a remarkable body of finely wrought miniature etchings and drypoints. Even though “black and white doesn’t sell”, he has eschewed the use of color, finding the subtleties and tonalities of black and white most capable of creating the psychological mood that allows his work to be effective.

ARTIST STATEMENT

We seem to live in an age where words, images and objects have been looted of meaning. So I have come to think of the etchings I make as being miniature Rorschachs, acting upon the experiences and senses of both the careful viewer and the artist. Even a simple nursery rhyme, once you start picking at it, will reveal layer upon layer of associations and further meanings. And so, I find myself both consciously and unconsciously striving towards images receptive to being endowed with meaning, those able to engender a capacity for receptivity to the mysterious and the ambivalent.

2010
Purchase Award, 23rd Annual McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition; Abercrombie Gallery, Lake Charles, LA
Best of Show and 1st Place in Printmaking and Drawing, Affaire in the Gardens; Beverly Hills, CA

2007Multiple Interpretations: Contemporary Prints in Portfolio at the New York Public Library; New York, NY (artist’s work noted in the New York Times, Dec. 4 )
Awarded Best in Show, Angels & Demons: Blessed or Possessed; A Shenere Velt Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1996Selections, a juried exhibition of work by artists from 1995’s San Francisco Open Studios, Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA1996 Print Biennial; Silvermine Guild Arts Center, New Canaan, CT